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Title: Demonstrating a separation-free process coupling ionic liquid pretreatment, saccharification, and fermentation with Rhodosporidium toruloides to produce advanced biofuels

Abstract

Achieving low cost and high efficiency lignocellulose deconstruction is a critical step towards widespread adoption of lignocellulosic biofuels. Certain ionic liquid (IL)-based pretreatment processes effectively reduce recalcitrance of lignocellulose to enzymatic degradation but require either costly separations following pretreatment or novel IL compatible processes to mitigate downstream toxicity. Here we demonstrate at benchtop and pilot bioreactor scales a separation-free, intensified process for IL pretreatment, saccharification, and fermentation of sorghum biomass to produce the sesquiterpene bisabolene, a precursor to the renewable diesel and jet fuel bisabolane. The deconstruction process employs the IL cholinium lysinate ([Ch][Lys]), followed by enzymatic saccharification with the commercial enzyme cocktails Cellic CTec2 and HTec2. Glucose yields above 80% and xylose yields above 60% are observed at all scales tested. Unfiltered hydrolysate is fermented directly by Rhodosporidium toruloides-with glucose, xylose, acetate and lactate fully consumed during fermentation at all scales tested. Bisabolene titers improved with scale from 1.3 g L-1 in 30 mL shake flasks to 2.2 g L-1 in 20 L fermentation. The combined process enables conversion of saccharified IL-pretreated biomass directly to advanced biofuels with no separations or washing, minimal additions to facilitate fermentation, no loss of performance due to IL toxicity, and simplified fuel recoverymore » via phase separation. This study is the first to demonstrate a separation-free IL based process for conversion of biomass to an advanced biofuel and is the first to demonstrate full consumption of glucose, xylose, acetate, and lactic acid in the presence of [Ch][Lys].« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [3];  [4];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [3];  [1];  [5]; ORCiD logo [4]
  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, USA
  2. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, USA, Joint BioEnergy Institute, Emeryville
  3. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, USA, Joint BioEnergy Institute, Emeryville
  4. Joint BioEnergy Institute, Emeryville, USA, Sandia National Laboratory, Livermore
  5. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, USA
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
OSTI Identifier:
1439778
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1458771; OSTI ID: 1506283
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-05CH11231; AC05-76RL01830
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Published Article
Journal Name:
Green Chemistry
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Green Chemistry Journal Volume: 20 Journal Issue: 12; Journal ID: ISSN 1463-9262
Publisher:
Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
Country of Publication:
United Kingdom
Language:
English
Subject:
37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY

Citation Formats

Sundstrom, Eric, Yaegashi, Junko, Yan, Jipeng, Masson, Fabrice, Papa, Gabriella, Rodriguez, Alberto, Mirsiaghi, Mona, Liang, Ling, He, Qian, Tanjore, Deepti, Pray, Todd R., Singh, Seema, Simmons, Blake, Sun, Ning, Magnuson, Jon, and Gladden, John. Demonstrating a separation-free process coupling ionic liquid pretreatment, saccharification, and fermentation with Rhodosporidium toruloides to produce advanced biofuels. United Kingdom: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1039/C8GC00518D.
Sundstrom, Eric, Yaegashi, Junko, Yan, Jipeng, Masson, Fabrice, Papa, Gabriella, Rodriguez, Alberto, Mirsiaghi, Mona, Liang, Ling, He, Qian, Tanjore, Deepti, Pray, Todd R., Singh, Seema, Simmons, Blake, Sun, Ning, Magnuson, Jon, & Gladden, John. Demonstrating a separation-free process coupling ionic liquid pretreatment, saccharification, and fermentation with Rhodosporidium toruloides to produce advanced biofuels. United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.1039/C8GC00518D
Sundstrom, Eric, Yaegashi, Junko, Yan, Jipeng, Masson, Fabrice, Papa, Gabriella, Rodriguez, Alberto, Mirsiaghi, Mona, Liang, Ling, He, Qian, Tanjore, Deepti, Pray, Todd R., Singh, Seema, Simmons, Blake, Sun, Ning, Magnuson, Jon, and Gladden, John. 2018. "Demonstrating a separation-free process coupling ionic liquid pretreatment, saccharification, and fermentation with Rhodosporidium toruloides to produce advanced biofuels". United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.1039/C8GC00518D.
@article{osti_1439778,
title = {Demonstrating a separation-free process coupling ionic liquid pretreatment, saccharification, and fermentation with Rhodosporidium toruloides to produce advanced biofuels},
author = {Sundstrom, Eric and Yaegashi, Junko and Yan, Jipeng and Masson, Fabrice and Papa, Gabriella and Rodriguez, Alberto and Mirsiaghi, Mona and Liang, Ling and He, Qian and Tanjore, Deepti and Pray, Todd R. and Singh, Seema and Simmons, Blake and Sun, Ning and Magnuson, Jon and Gladden, John},
abstractNote = {Achieving low cost and high efficiency lignocellulose deconstruction is a critical step towards widespread adoption of lignocellulosic biofuels. Certain ionic liquid (IL)-based pretreatment processes effectively reduce recalcitrance of lignocellulose to enzymatic degradation but require either costly separations following pretreatment or novel IL compatible processes to mitigate downstream toxicity. Here we demonstrate at benchtop and pilot bioreactor scales a separation-free, intensified process for IL pretreatment, saccharification, and fermentation of sorghum biomass to produce the sesquiterpene bisabolene, a precursor to the renewable diesel and jet fuel bisabolane. The deconstruction process employs the IL cholinium lysinate ([Ch][Lys]), followed by enzymatic saccharification with the commercial enzyme cocktails Cellic CTec2 and HTec2. Glucose yields above 80% and xylose yields above 60% are observed at all scales tested. Unfiltered hydrolysate is fermented directly by Rhodosporidium toruloides-with glucose, xylose, acetate and lactate fully consumed during fermentation at all scales tested. Bisabolene titers improved with scale from 1.3 g L-1 in 30 mL shake flasks to 2.2 g L-1 in 20 L fermentation. The combined process enables conversion of saccharified IL-pretreated biomass directly to advanced biofuels with no separations or washing, minimal additions to facilitate fermentation, no loss of performance due to IL toxicity, and simplified fuel recovery via phase separation. This study is the first to demonstrate a separation-free IL based process for conversion of biomass to an advanced biofuel and is the first to demonstrate full consumption of glucose, xylose, acetate, and lactic acid in the presence of [Ch][Lys].},
doi = {10.1039/C8GC00518D},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1439778}, journal = {Green Chemistry},
issn = {1463-9262},
number = 12,
volume = 20,
place = {United Kingdom},
year = {Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2018},
month = {Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2018}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record at https://doi.org/10.1039/C8GC00518D

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 48 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Figures / Tables:

Figure 1 Figure 1: Three process configurations for conversion of IL pretreated biomass to advanced biofuels: fully separated unit operations (red), one pot deconstruction–saccharification (blue), and the fully consolidated process (green). The fully consolidated process eliminates the requirement for IL separation prior to saccharification and fermentation, but requires IL tolerant enzyme cocktailsmore » and an IL tolerant host organism. Separation of both fuel molecules and residual ionic liquids can then be consolidated into a single step following fermentation.« less

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Works referenced in this record:

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A Thermophilic Ionic Liquid-Tolerant Cellulase Cocktail for the Production of Cellulosic Biofuels
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journal, January 2014


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journal, July 2014


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journal, December 2013


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Works referencing / citing this record:

Ionic Liquids in Biomass Processing
journal, December 2018


Pilot-scale hydrothermal pretreatment and optimized saccharification enables bisabolene production from multiple feedstocks
journal, January 2019


Microbial Platform for Terpenoid Production: Escherichia coli and Yeast
journal, October 2018


Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.